Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg speaks out about sexual harassment and the role power plays

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg speaks during the Watermark Conference for Women at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

MENLO PARK — Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is one of the world’s most powerful women, but even she has experienced sexual harassment.

In a lengthy Facebook post on Sunday, Sandberg wrote that she’s never been sexually harassed or assaulted by anyone she’s worked for, but she has dealt with “unwanted sexual advances” on the job.

“A hand on my leg under the table at a meeting. Married men – all decades older than I – offering ‘career advice’ and then suggesting that they could share it with me alone late at night. The conference where a man I declined leaving a dinner with came to my hotel room late at night and banged on my door until I called security,” Sandberg wrote.

“I didn’t work for any of these men. But in every single one of these situations, they had more power than I did. That’s not a coincidence. It’s why they felt free to cross that line.”

The 48-year-old executive, who didn’t identify the men in the Facebook post, said she’s dealt with harassment less often as she gained more power. It still happens, though, from time to time.

Allegations of sexual harassment have continued to rock Hollywood, the news industry, politics and Silicon Valley this year.

More victims have come forward with stories on social media using the hashtag “MeToo.” Sandberg said telling these stories isn’t enough, and warned of a backlash.

Companies need to improve how they handle sexual harassment accusations and place more women in power, she wrote.

Promoting women won’t solve all these problems, but Sandberg believes it would be a step in the right direction.

“We are seeing what happens when power is held nearly exclusively by men. It gives rise to an environment in which, at its worst, women are treated as bodies to be leered at or grabbed, rather than peers entitled to equal respect,” she wrote.